CROCKETT, SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1860- ), Scottish novelist, was born at Duchrae, Galloway, on the 24th of September 1860, the son of a Galloway farmer. He was brought up on a Galloway farm, and graduated from Edinburgh University in 1879. After some years of travel he became in 1886 minister of Penicuik, but eventually abandoned the Free Church ministry for novel-writing. The success of Mr J. M. Barrie had created a demand for stories in the Scottish dialect when Mr Crockett published his successful story of The Stickit Minister in 1893. It was followed by a rapidly produced series of popular novels dealing often with the past history of Scotland, or with his native Galloway. Such are The Raiders, The Lilac Sun-bonnet and Mad Sir Uchtred in 1894; The Men of the Moss Hags in 1895; Cleg Kelly and The Grey Man in 1896; The Surprising Adventuresof Sir Toady Lion (1897); The Red Axe (1898); KitKennedy (1899); Joan of the Sword Hand and Little Anna Mark in 1900; Flower o' the Corn (1902); Red Cap Tales (1904), &c.